Category: reading list

So I have one semester of my research Masters in photography completed and my brain is definitely bigger than it was previously! I’m conducting research on Re-imaginig Irish Identities: Photography, Hybridity and Identity, which will involve ethnographic fieldwork, interviews and portraits of the Irish diaspora in London.

Going forward, on this blog, I’ll be documenting my process of research, field work, ethnographic notes and writing. Thus, inspired by Ellie’s blog post, here’s my 2018 / 2019 reading list. While I’m working on a review of literature for my thesis chapter, I’ll be reading widely around my topic, which is why these lists aren’t discipline-specific.

The 2018 book-list

Lauren Elkin – Flâneuse: Women Walk the City

Olivia Laing – The Lonely City

Emily Jacir – Europa

Philip Pullman – The Book of Dust

Thuc Van Nhugen – The Refugees

Sean Sexton – The Irish: A Photohistory

Langford – Basic Photography: A Primer For Professionals

Simon Baker – Performing For the Camera

Russell Roberts – William Henry Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph

Jeu De Paume – Dorethea Lange: Politics of Seeing

Various – Dali / Duchamp

Laura Blacklow – New Dimensions in Photo Processes

Niamh O’Sullivan – Coming Home: Art and the Great Hunger

David Farrell  – Before, During, After, Almost

Justin Carville – Photography and Ireland

Seamus Murphy – The Republic

London Center for Book Arts – Making Books

Experimental Photography: A Handbook of Techniques

The 2019 to-be-read list  

Richard Mosse – The Castle

Iain Sinclair – London Orbital

Reni Eddo-Lodge – Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race

Shirley Read and Mike Simmons – Photographers and Research: the Role of Research in Contemporary Photographic Practice

Rebecca Solnit – The Book of Migrations

Rebecca Solnit – A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Frantz Fanon – The Wretched of the Earth

Svetlana Boym – The Future of Nostalgia

John Berger – About Looking

Patti Smith – M Train

Teju Cole – Known and Strange Things

WG Sebald – The Emigrants

Susan Sontag – On Photography

Iain Sinclair – Living With Buildings

Jacques Ranciere – The Emancipated Spectator

Clare Norton – Liberating Histories

Ian Parr – Memory

Chris Krauss – Social Practices

Gregory Sholette – Delirium and Resistance

Heather Morris – The Tattooist of Aushwitz

James Baldwin – The Fire Next Time

Joan Fontcuberta – Pandora’s Camera

Simon Baker – The Shape of Light

Hal Foster – Bad New Days

Mark Greif – Against Everything

Elif Bautmann – The Idiot

Roland Barthes – Mythologies

Julian Stallabrass – Documentary

I know these two lists are vastly different in length, while writing my MA proposal, I was reading journal articles and texts, mostly, not actual books. My goal for 2019 is to read most, if not all, of the books on my to-be-read list. There’s a lot more on my initial reading list but these are a good starting point.

From next week, I’ll be sharing my initial field notes and thoughts and processes around researching, so stay tuned!